Steam

An Android game console? No, not OUYA, but iConsole.tv, an Intel Haswell based Android gaming start-up running Steam and intending to double as a home theater setup for your living room. Quietly announced earlier this year, and with an Intel IDF appearance under the team's belt, iConsole.tv is revealing a new version of its "Unit 00" developer hardware today, and billing it as the most powerful Android device around.

Steam already had a good setup in terms of being able to get and play games, however one bit that had been lacking was the ability to share those games with friends and family members. While that option is not yet available, it has been announced. This will be arriving as Steam Family Sharing and it will allow users to share their game libraries with others. The Family Sharing option is expected to arrive next week, however the initial rollout will be a beta with limited availability.

In the game America's Army: Proving Grounds, the actual real-deal United States Army has commissioned yet another shooting game for the public. This game is not the first - and it wont be the last - game created for the Army to show off what it might be like to be a member of their ranks, and it's being released in Beta mode to Steam this week. This game is entirely free to download, free to play, and aims to display small unit tactical maneuvers and training "that reflects the current day Army."

The gamer-created unofficial Half-Life modification Sven Co-Op has been announced to be going fully official (Steam game official, that is) this week by its makers. What this means for you, the lay person, is that you'll be seeing this game available inside Steam for free - downloadable and playable - where before today - and for the past 14 years or so - you'd have had to have downloaded it and loaded it yourself attached to the original game. Now it's all on its own and going big with help from the Steam team!

It's no secret that Valve's Steam digital gaming service holds gigantic sales throughout the year and discounts even the biggest games by 50% or more. This time around, we're seeing probably the biggest sale of the year so far, which is Steam's Summer Getaway Sale that is lasting 11 days throughout this month, with each day having its own set of discounted titles.

One of the most influential role-playing video games in the history of such things has been delivered to the PC gaming realm at last. Having made its way from the PlayStation universe back in the classic era of 1997, here it's one whole heck of a lot less expensive than that release, brought through Steam for the first time. What's more, this release has Square Enix making a teaser for future releases with a bit of a pre-order bonus too - Cloud for all games!

While Steam users aren't allowed to resell their digital games, it's been spotted in the code of the latest beta update that digital gaming service may soon get the ability to share games with friends, allowing users to give access to certain games to friends if they aren't currently playing them.

Similar to Microsoft's reward and achievement system for the Xbox, Valve has come out with their own reward system for PC gamers on Steam, and they're calling it Trading Cards. It's launching in beta and it lets you earn rewards for playing Steam games. The Trading Cards will add to your "Steam Level," as well as the ability to earn rewards by collecting achievements.

Valve's Steam digital distribution gaming platform has added support for gaming subscription plans, allowing gamers the ability to manage their subscription-based games through the gaming service. The new feature offers a simple way to sign up for games and manage payments. The first and only game so far to use the new feature is Darkfall Unholy Wars.

If you're familiar with the Alienware X51, you know you've only had it available with Windows software out of the box until now - now you'll find Ubuntu leading up the show. This machine brings on a rather small form factor you can use to replace your gaming console - if you dare - a possibility made even more real now that Valve's Steam gaming interface works with Linux natively. You know good and well you've wanted to try it since that bit was announced.